Masking and Solartex

I masked some silver solartex and found that the colour bled under the tape due to the fabric weave of the covering. Has anybody found a simple way of stopping this? I was going to try a line of dope over the edge of the tape to seal it, has anybody tried that or found another way? I cannot use a layer of base color as I am leaving the white solartex as the base.

 

Cheers

Danny

I haven't used it, but there are liquid masks available, which I imagine would fill the weave of the tex.

 

Might be popping into the LHS later, so will check for a brand name, but I think it might be Revel?

Hi Andy, yes I have some liquid mask, or art mask as it says on my jar, made by DALER-ROWNEY. would mean doing the edges freehand which is possibly not good when you see how steady I am with a brush! But good idea.

 

Cheers

Danny

Hi Danny,

 

I always do as you describe & go over the edge of the tape with a matching paint first-just a thin stripe along the edge does it-I expect clear will do OK also.

The problem with liquid masks is that they also have to be put on either freehand or with masking/stencils & creep can occur here & if you can mask freehand, you may as well paint freehand-not as difficult as it sounds, but you do need Artists 'lining' brushes for best results

Hi Mark, thanks for your thoughts. I think I will give it a go with clear dope along the edge of the tape to seal it. I am spraying with Halfords rattle tins so it shouldn't react.

 

 

Hi Danny,

 

What are you using as a mask?  Some of the cheaper masking tape is intended for the domestic market, where a superb line is not too important.

 

There are auto masking tapes of various widths, the narrow ones will allow curves

 

There are also people who will cut excellent masks from your artwork, or, there is a medical tape called Blenderm  It is very good, for a multitude of applications, like hinges.  

The advice to use a matching paint first is also good

 

ernie

Hi Ernie, in this instance I am masking an area of white solartex and spraying red around it, the unpainted white solartex is then the background for the German crosses.

 

Its on my Baronette.

 

The area that I will leave white is on the wings, there should also be white squares on the fuselage, but I have some nice white edged crosses for the fus.

 

The stencilling I will cut/plot my own vinyl masks (I have a plotter cutter). A friend has given me some of the Tamiya masking tape it is supposed to be the dogs whisker, I could try that on a test piece?? I will spray the wings tomorrow with any luck.

 

Anyway thanks for the tips they are all worth a try and it is obviously something we have all come up against.......

 

Cheers

Danny

Well managed a quick experiment using some Tamiya masking tape. I think this has more or less solved the problem, there is a tiny bit of bleed but it really is negligible. Much better than regular, and probably cheap masking tape that I was using

 

So the tamiya stuff it is......

 

Thanks again

Danny

Couldn't you have just bought/made crosses with the white outline as part of the decal?

 

That's what I did on the DVII.  No painting required.

My LMS sell masking tape by Jammy Dog.  Have used it on my models and its fantastic, no bleed whatsoever.  They do some really narrow tape that goes around corners no probs   - Heres the link for future ref.

 

 

 

For straight lines i use Sellotape and it works a treat.

 

Hi Andy and Craig,

The white area on my Baronette is leading edge to trailing edge and the same width so a bit too large an area for decals, and the crosses are the curved type. I could have cut some masks on the plotter, but this thing has to be finished pretty quick as it is purely for a mock dogfight at our fun fly next weekend. If the decals don't arrive this morning then I may have to mask straight crosses.

Craig thats stuff sounds and looks great, Have you tried it on top of unpainted solartex to check for bleeding? I use 1/64 chart tape and a skim of filler to create panel lines this stuff looks like it will do the job too, and perhaps a little cheaper  Good find Craig.

 

Great stuff, thanks

Danny

Danny,

Have you tried using the white (or clear) decal/transfer sheets from Hannants etc. You can simply make up the artwork on your computer, print it off to the size you want and then use the decal sheets in any photocopier.

 

Hi Barry, I have used some clear before and it was good for certain jobs. I prefer to cut stencils on the plotter and use the airbrush. But it depends on the complexity of the artwork.

 

The tamiya tape did a great job, virtually no bleed through and thats with red on plain white Solartex.

 

Cheers

Danny